Spotify and it’s swedish factories presents the first of it’s own made hardware: “Car Thing”; an all-new voice/touch/button controlled interface designed for a complete distraction-free experience while at the wheel.

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The device currently works on premium accounts only and needs it’s own USB power supply, while it connects via bluetooth to your smartphone’s app, working as a remote.
“Car Thing” offers an high-res 4″ touch screen display, four upper buttons for some easy shortcuts and an over-sized knob useful for browsing through playlists, podcasts and songs. Last but not least: the all-new built in vocal assistant, which pops out every time it ears “Hey Spotify!” through its four hig-res microphones.

Sadly, the first free beta testing of the “Car Thing” is just for USA based users, but the announced price will start at 79.99$, falling near it’s main competitor’s range: Amazon’s Echo Auto. Will it be the start of a new race to this market?

As pointless as this new tech sounds, the “Car Thing” doesn’t want to be a substitute to the car’s radio, but actually tries to push itself in a segment full of customers with a car with no infotainment display, lacking the comfort of Android Auto and Apple Car Play’s interfaces, giving them a similar experience while reducing the usage of the smartphone behind the wheel.

Also, this first born hardware from Spotify could also be the starting point of a whole new gadgets development for the Swedish giant, maybe in household or in gaming. Who knows what they’re cooking?

 

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